Combined heat and power production in Finland

Combined power and heat production (CHP) has a significant role in energy production in Finland. About 80 per cent of the the district heating is based on cogeneration. At the moment Fortum has four CHP plants in Finland.

Located at Joensuu´s Kontiosuo district in Finland, Joensuu CHP produces heat for the inhabitants of Joensuu and electricity for the national grid. The main fuels in the Joensuu CHP plant are wood and peat.

Currently the production covers roughly 95% of district heat needed in Joensuu. The rest of heat is produced in heating stations located in different places on the heating grid.

Current production capacity is electricity 50 MW, district heating 110 MW + 30 MW and approcimately 218 MW from the heating stations.

Fortum is also responsible for maintaining the district heating network of 200 kilometres in Joensuu.

Bio-oil from Joensuu

The bio-oil plant was integrated to CHP plant in 2013. The production will increase our wood use in energy production in Joensuu from the current 300,000 cubic meters to 600,000 cubic meters per year. The fast pyrolysis technology-based bio-oil plant is the first of its kind in the world on an industrial scale. The bio-oil plant is planned to be in full production phase in the autumn 2015.

Located by the sea in Espoo, Finland, the Suomenoja power plant (CHP) produces heat for the inhabitants of Espoo, Kauniainen, and Kirkkonummi and electricity for the national grid.

The power plant has totally six units: two using coal, three using natural gas and one heat pump unit. It produces about 2 300 GWh of heat (correspondes the heat deman for about 100 000 houses) and about 700 - 1 800 GWh of electricity depending on the power market.

In 1977 a steam power plant producing electricity and heat and using coal as fuel was completed. A hot water boiler plant based on circulating fluidised bed technology and intended for peak load operation was completed in 1986. A gas turbine plant equipped with heat recovery was commissioned in 1989.

A gas turbine unit started in 2009 and it uses natural gas as fuel, a steam boiler that recovers the heat from the gas turbine exhaust gases, and a steam turbine. The efficiency of the combined heat and power plant can be up to 90%.

A heat pump unit of 40 MW was commissioned in the beginning of 2015. It uses cleaned waste water. The new unit reduces the CO2 emissions of district heating in the area by 15%.

Investigations are ongoing to use biofues or to utilize heat accumulator in Suomenoja.The heat plants are only used for the heat production during the winter when the heat demand is at its highest. District heat is transmitted to the residents and buildings through a district heat network. Fortum is continuously investing in expanding the network. The total length of the network currently circulating in Espoo, Kauniainen, and Kirkkonummi is approximately 800 km.

The production capacity of the Suomenoja power plant is electric power 350 MW and heat power 600 MW.

Biofuel-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Järvenpää, Southern Finland, was commissioned in spring 2013. The plant utilises biofuels to produce district heat for about 34,000 residents in the Tuusula and Järvenpää communities as well as electricity for the national grid.

The plant produces about 280 GWh of heat and about 130 of electricity annually.

Normally, the plant uses only biofuels, mainly forest residues and forest industry by-products such as sawdust and bark. If needed, the plant can also be fuelled with peat and natural gas.

Every weekday, some 35 truckloads of biofuel are transported to the Järvenpää plant. The fuel is locally sourced from an approximately 100-kilometer radius from the plant. Acquiring, handling and transporting the fuel provides employment for about 80 people.

The CHP plant replaces heat production based on natural gas and heavy fuel oil and has made some of the old capacity in the area obsolete. Some boiler plants remain in reserve for peak load needs.

The Naantali combined heat and power (CHP) plant is nowadays owned by Turun Seudun Energiantuotanto Oy (TSE). Fortum's shareholding in TSE is 49.5%. The power plant employs some 100 persons, as Fortum provides operation and maintenance services to TSE. Read more about TSE.

Energy production in the Turku region is largely based on the heat and electricity production of Naantali power plant. The power plant produces annually about 1,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity for the Nordic market and about 500 GWh of steam for industrial customers. The power plant also produces about 1,500 GWh of district heat for the Turku region. The plant has been in operation since year 1960.